Every Friday, GoLocalProv takes a look at who is rising and who is falling in Rhode Island politics, business, culture, and sports.
Making the list this week -- our enduring democracy, small businesses' resilience, and that all-white Rhode Island Supreme Court.
Now, we are expanding the list, the political perspectives, and we are going to a GoLocal team approach while encouraging readers to suggest nominees for who is "HOT" and who is "NOT."
The Rhode Island Airport Corporation announced the resumption of direct service to Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati, OH provided by American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and Allegiant Airlines.
Direct service to Reagan National Airport was suspended by Southwest Airlines and American Airlines in early May as a result of lowered service demand caused by the coronavirus.
Allegiant Airlines' resumption of seasonal service to Cincinnati is returning as planned, having been suspended for the season in September of 2019. T.F. Green Airport is currently the only commercial airport in New England providing direct service to Cincinnati.
The state, Twin River and the company's employees have lost tens of millions in revenue while the two casinos have been shuttered.
You know how important this revenue stream is to the state of Rhode Island. It's important to our company too and we have 2,500 employees here," said Marc Crisafulli, Vice President of Twin River Worldwide Holdings, in an appearance on GoLocal LIVE this week.
"As you know back in April, we started working through what it could look like -- how could a reopening happen. And then as you follow the science throughout April and May circumstances kind of changed and we looked at certain things being more important, other things being less important," he said. "Ultimately we came to a plan that made sense and with the state's progress getting to phase 2."
Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully launched on Saturday and has become the first private company to rocket humans into orbit.
The launch was in question due to weather, but after unsettled conditions over the Kennedy Space Center in Florida cleared long enough on Saturday afternoon, the stage was set to allow a second launch attempt to go ahead.
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley became the first to fly in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, carried on top of one of the company’s Falcon 9 rockets towards a planned meeting with the International Space Station.
It is the first manned American launched rocket in nine years.
Brown Urology has announced that the urologists, physician assistants, and staff of Urological Specialists of New England (USNE) joined Brown Urology.
Now, the combined group is the largest independent urology practice in New England and recognized as one of the top urology practices in the country.
“USNE is a very busy, well-established and highly regarded community urology practice serving the West Bay and Northern Rhode Island. The Brown Urology providers have had long-standing referral relationships with these physicians, which will only be strengthened by this affiliation,” according to Dr. Mark Sigman of Brown Urology.
If the performance of Rhode Island schools were not bad enough and that much of this year was lost to the coronavirus, now the layoffs begin.
The Central Falls teachers’ union issued a statement Tuesday expressing “extremely disappointed” that the Central Falls Board of Trustees voted to lay off 36 Central Falls teachers after having already approved six other layoffs.
There are approximately 240 teachers this school year, and the total number of layoffs are close to 20% of the teaching workforce. The vote was initially 2-3 against the motion before a board member reversed and voted to issue the layoff notices.
Central Falls Mayor James Diossa did not respond to a request for comment.
“This vote means that services will be eliminated for our neediest students,” said CFTU President Tracey Cavanaugh. ”Eliminating services for students with special needs and English language learners after three months of distance learning will have a devastating impact on Central Falls students. Our students need more consistency, not more disruption
Raimondo has made some sound decisions this week, but one tone-deaf failure is her unwillingness to commit to naming a person of color to fill the vacancy on the Rhode Island State Supreme Court.
1) Rhode Island's Supreme Court has been all-white for its entire history.
2) While the court has had numerous outstanding jurists, the selection process is driven by cronyism and this year is Rhode Island politics at its worst.
3) If you are going to talk the talk about issues of equity, then you need to back up those words.
